Despite the fact that most major US companies do some type of political advocacy behind the scenes, most brands don t want to take public political positions for fear of alienating existing and potential customers.
But in the Trump era, the neutral ground is disappearing.
Following Trump s executive order banning refugees from seven Muslim countries, ride-sharing service Lyft made a strong statement against the ban and pledged to donate $1 million to the ACLU.
By contrast, Uber ended surge pricing on rides from the airport and appeared to be capitalizing on a New York taxi strike in support of protesters who had massed at JFK.
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, who criticized Trump in the past but more recently became a member of his CEO advisory board, made a relatively tepid statement that didn t explicitly condemn the ban:
I understand that many people internally and externally may not agree with that decision, and that s OK.
